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By: Matthew RorieDesign: Randall Montanari

It's only been two short years since Call of Duty came along and shook up the world of World War II shooters. Made by Infinity Ward, which was started by former developers on the Medal of Honor series, Call of Duty focused on straightforward, cinematic action, but did it extremely well, with wonderful set pieces and a sense of polish that's not always evident in games from first-time developers. The game was also notable for having a comprehensive multiplayer mode in addition to its singleplayer component, which was rare at the time, as most developers focused on delivering one or the other.

Now, two years later, Infinity Ward is back with Call of Duty 2, a bigger and better sequel to the original game. Call of Duty sports a bigger scope and better graphics, but doesn't mess with success overmuch; if you played a bunch of Call of Duty, then you should feel right at home here, since the entire game is fairly similar to the first game, right down to the overall standard of quality.

GameSpot's Game Guide to Call of Duty 2 includes a full single-player walkthrough, detailed descriptions on all of the weapons in the game, and a few multiplayer tips as well. Enjoy!

Walkthrough

Russian Campaign One: The Winter War

Red Army Training

Moscow: December 16, 1941

You begin Call of Duty 2 as a raw recruit into the Soviet army, possessed of nothing but the wits in your head and the rifle in your hands. But hey, you don't even have a rifle in your hands! You'll have to follow the orders of your little squad commander here to get outfitted, at which point you'll be stuck in a bit of a tutorial level. If you're an old hand at FPS games, then none of this should be unfamiliar; if this is your first, then the tutorial itself will help you more than anything we could say will.

Although most tutorials are their own, self-contained levels, this one will actually extend into a bit of combat, as you'll discover that the Germans are massing for an attack on your position. What follows is a rudimentary bit of combat, as you'll have to make your way through the town, taking cover, learning about smoke grenades, and the like. So long as you don't run into the path of the machinegun that's firing down the street, you should find it relatively easy to avoid dying (although all bets are off on Veteran difficulty).

The first of many, many dead Wehrmacht.

When you get closer to the Panzer Hummel, the mobile artillery that the Germans are using to shell you, you'll have to take out its guards, then approach to the Hummel itself and destroy it with explosives. Don't forget to aim down the sights with your PPsh gun, as it'll greatly help your accuracy.

Demolition

Stalingrad: December 2, 1942

It's been almost a year since you joined up with the Soviet army, although it feels like just a few minutes! Odd how time flies. Anyway, the defense of Stalingrad was one of the turning points of all of World War II, as the German army surrounded the city and lay siege to it. The Russian resistance and counterattack sparked a battle that lasted for almost 200 days, and is still regarded as the single bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, with casualties estimates ranging up to two million.

Most of the Stalingrad battle involved dirty fighting in the streets and ruined buildings of the city, and this level is no different. You begin inside a department store, and have to push your way through heavy German resistance to reach the far windows, which are of course missing by this point. Your teammates here can be counted on to take the bulk of the bullets for you, as well as put up a strong fight, but you'll have to prod them along by attempting to stay out in front of them, as that will encourage them to move forward themselves. This is especially true of the no-man's-land between the first two buildings here, where you'll have to rush out, lie prone behind a wall until your teammates come out behind you, then repeat the process until you reach the far building.

Heck, don't even stick your head out here; just hide behind the windows here and wait for the Germans to retreat.

After you crawl through the trench here, you'll have to repulse a German counterattack on your position. There are going to be at least a couple dozen German soldiers coming your way from across the field here. Now, if you're playing on a normal difficulty setting, you may be able to pop your head out of cover and actually attack some of these guys, but on Hard or higher, you're going to get chopped down to size relatively quickly if you actually try to stand up and fight. It's far better to sit back in the building here, around the corner from one of the windows, and chuck a few grenades in the path of the incoming Germans. When you've done that, just sit back out of sight and let them get right up next to the window. By the time they get close enough to shoot, you can pop a few of them from your little hiding spot; shortly after that, you should get the signal that the Germans are retreating, and retreat they will, back to their local HQ.

Your last charge here will be to get to the far side of the courtyard. Unfortunately, it will be covered quite well by enemy MG's. If you picked up the Scoped Mosin-Nagant back at the house, then you can probably pick off a few of the baddies from a good distance away. Alternately, you can just lie prone in one of the trenches off to the left and crawl your way to the building, which will let you flank the gunners and kill them, providing an easy approach for the rest of your teammates.

After clearing out the building, you'll be asked to grab some dynamite and rig the building to blow. Follow the compass to reach the engineer that'll hand off the charges to you, then find the three hotspots and place your explosives. Watch out for holes in the ceiling through which the trapped Germans will fire on you. When the building's destroyed, then you're done with this level; you'll also unlock the first British campaign for play.

Russian Campaign Two: Not One Step Backwards

Repairing The Wire

Stalingrad: December 8, 1942

Shortly after your adventure with the German HQ, you're going to be sent through the ruined homes of Stalingrad in an attempt to rewire the telephone wires that have been strung between yourself and another unit. They've been cut in multiple places thanks to all the fighting in the area, so you'll have to follow the wire and fix it in six different spots. Luckily for you, the wire itself acts as a kind of automatic walkthrough, as all you need to do to find your next heading is follow the wire.

Immediately after you start the level, you're going to find yourself crossing a street that's covered by MG42s. Cover yourself with a smoke grenade to cross over, then start killing Germans. Be sure to pick up a Gewehr 43 when you spot one lying about; these are semi-automatic rifles with large clips and good stopping power, so they're well-suited to the kind of short and mid-range combat you're going to be facing here.

Anyway, the name of the game here is urban combat. You'll have to fight your way through a few platoons of Germans before you can get to and repair all six cuts in the cable, and even when you manage that, you're just told to get your butt in gear and go tank hunting, a fitting reward for your hard service. Be sure to pick up the sticky bombs nearby before heading out, as they'll be the only way you have to deal with the tanks.

There are three Panzer II's roaming the streets now, each of which possesses a powerful machinegun and the usually high-damage shell attack. The first will appear just below a set of windows, and fire on your little squad. To approach it safely, you'll have to walk to your left, drop down into the street, then either run across to the other building here, or simply drop a smoke grenade in the street and use it to get close and lay your sticky bombs. One sticky bomb probably won't destroy it, but it will disable it, and allow your teammates to crawl aboard and finish off the inhabitants with grenades.

You should find a set of smoke grenades in the building near this first tank, and they'll be instrumental in allowing you to approach and destroy the final two tanks. Doing so is difficult, since they move around and at least one of them is surrounded by Germans, but if you chuck down smoke grenades all around your target, you should be able to get close enough to do your job.

Railroad Station No. 1

Stalingrad: December 8, 1942

You don't have to kill any of these soldiers...but it's fun.

Well, there's an interesting beginning to this map, as you're chucked into a decrepit pipe and forced to crawl your way to the nearby train station. As you're passing through, you'll have the opportunity to snipe away at the soldiers beneath you, so take any of them out that you wish.

When you reach the train station, you'll be able to refit yourself with ammo, and will then be expected to dive into a nearby trench and lead the charge on another nearby building. There is an MG42 in the upper levels of the building here, so be sure to shoot it out before advancing across open space. When you do, you can cross over to the left side of the building, underneath the MG nest, and start flanking your way up to the other MG and into the building itself. Your goal is to enter the small tower here and clear it out; pave your way with grenades.

After you've taken control of the building, you'll trigger another counterattack by the Germans. As per usual, you don't actually have to take part in this fight if you don't want to. Your best bet for survival is to remain up on the second floor of the building and just run whenever you see a grenade land near you. Germans will try to come up the stairs to get you, but so long as you keep an eye on the stairwell, you should be able to PPsh anyone that comes after you.

Just wait up here while you're being attacked, and you should be able to repel your attacker fairly easily.

After the counterattack is countercounterattacked, it's time to take down another tank! You know the drill by now; get as close as you can with the cover that's available to you (in this case, exit the building as far from the tank as you can get, cross over to the other large building, then run down the wall), chuck a smoke grenade at the tank, then run up with a sticky bomb to take it out for good.

Now for another semi-new feature of Call of Duty 2: after the tank has been destroyed, you'll be given three separate objectives, which you can complete in any order. These three objectives are: clear out the enemy supply dumps, eliminate the enemy forward position, and destroy the MG nest nearby. We preferred to do these in reverse order, i.e. go from C to B to A. After clearing out the supply dumps at B, you should find a sniper rifle on the second floor of the building, overlooking objective A, allowing you to snipe out the soldiers there and finish the level off.

Russian Campaign Three: Fortress Stalingrad

Downtown Assault

Stalingrad: January 15th, 1943

Your ultimate objective here is to assault an enemy position and destroy their ammo supplies, but before you can do so, you'll have to assault and take a few buildings between your position and that of the enemy. Doing so isn't necessarily a complex matter; you just have to find the buildings indicated on your compass and kill everyone inside, and one part of your objective will be completed.

After you clear out the first building, a tank will appear. You won't have any sticky bombs in your possession, so you'll have to cross the street directly in front of the tank in order to reach the building on the opposite side, where some improvised explosives are held. Obviously enough, a smoke grenade will be your friend here. When you have the sticky bombs, don't bother running back to the ramp you entered the building from; just hit one of the windowsills and jump down from it before the tank can back up out of the smoke.

A smoke grenade should help you get past this tank here.

The next building you have to hit will be a bit more difficult, as there are two of them positioned across from one another, and the Germans will be firing fiercely at you as you pass through the first building here. In order to pass on, you'll probably want to lay down a smoke grenade in front of the German-occupied windows, or just below your own, before jumping down to the street and running across.

Next up is a fun little machinegunning sequence; just fire on any targets that your lieutenant calls out for you, and you should be able to get your squad up to where you need them. When they reach the building to the left, it'll explode as it comes under fire from the tank that arrives. Stunning timing. You'll need to hop out of the building after a shell explodes part of it, then smoke grenade, sticky bomb, etc., etc. In actuality, this tank is harder to get to because it'll keep moving around the center ruined building here, but if you have a couple of smoke bombs left, you should be able to drop them in a couple of different places and sneak up on it to lay your bombs.

City Hall

Stalingrad: January 15th, 1943

If you've been playing the missions in order thus far, then you'll probably find City Hall to be the most difficult one yet. You start out here with a tough fight along the length of a street against a large number of Germans. You and your squad won't have a good number of places to hide, and of course the Germans will keep coming after you kill them, so you might want to just chuck a smoke grenade down the street before you start making your moves. On Veteran difficulty, you can expect a few cheap kills here; it's very difficult to completely avoid taking damage.

When you round the corner past the pillar, you'll come to yet another street. Another fight here, and you'll get to City Hall; blow open the door to move on.

Comrade Sniper

Stalingrad: January 15th, 1943

Your first task here, after killing a few of the enemies in your path, is to find and eliminate an enemy sniper. You won't actually be able to see him from the little test that you and Pavel run; you'll have to pay attention to what your other friend calls out. The red building is to your left, while the grey building is to the right; the sniper should be on the second floor of one of these. Even with the Scoped Mosin-Nagant, you won't be able to see much more than a vague shape moving throguh the building, although you may be able to detect his breath as well, seeing as how it's 40 below zero.

When you kill the sniper, keep moving on through the building you're in. You'll have to clear it out completely before the final sequence here can begin, which involves a series of enemy charges on your position inside the building. This isn't like most of the other repel-the-attackers sequences in the game thus far, though, as you'll have to really work here in order to prevent yourself from dying.

There are four waves here, but you'll probably find that most of them will blend together into one long sequence of incoming enemies. You can find another sniper rifle on the second floor of the building here if you need one, and you'll probably want to have one for the first couple of waves, since it'll allow you to pick people off from long range. You do get a save point after all of the soldiers from the second wave have been eliminated, and you'll probably need it.

Be sure to take out these MG gunners before they get set up, if possible.

The last two waves here will be much more intense than the others, and will feature one or two mobile MG soldiers attempting to set themselves up in the square. If possible, track them and shoot them before they reach their destination, as they'll be difficult to hit when they've set up. You might want to stay down in the basement of this building as the enemy waves come your way and take out any soldiers that manage to reach your building as they come through the windows; otherwise they'll come up the stairs to the upper floor and shoot you in the back, which can be pretty confusing.

The second major challenge here is the appearance of a halftrack, which will come towards your building with guns blazing towards the end of the fourth wave. The bazooka you need to take it out with is on the second floor of the building, so grab it, wait for the halftrack to come close to your position, and fire on it from above to destroy it. If you can get this far, then you should be able to fend off the remaining soldiers and finish the campaign off without too much risk to your own health.

British Campaign One: The Battle of El Alamein

The Diversionary Raid

El Alamein: October 29, 1942

As with the British campaign in the first Call of Duty, it would appear that you're going to get a taste of some commando action here in COD2. You're going to start with a raid on a fuel and ammo depot in the middle of the desert on which Rommel and his Africa Korps rely for resupplies.

Your first task here is to find and eliminate three MG positions around the level. This involves some pretty standard trench crawling, so be quick with the grenades and bank them around corners or into bunkers to ensure that no one's in your path when you want to move forward. The third MG nestn only be taken by dropping into a bunker underneath it and climbing up. You can try to clean out as much of it as possible from the trench nearby before you have to crawl up the ladder to reach it, though.

Weaken up the third hardpoint from above before climbing the ladder beneath it.

After you finish with the third hardpoint, you'll be asked to regroup with Captain Price (whom you might remember rescuing in the American campaign in the first game), and finally taking out the ammo and fuel dumps. Doing so will require you to kill a whole lot of Germans, and you should definitely do so before you head out towards the ammo and fuel dumps. Attempting to bum-rush one of these things will result in some odd auto-saving, so you'll want to lighten up the defenders before rushing into the bunkers to destroy the ammo dumps. The fuel tanks can be killed by shooting them; they'll take out any nearby Germans.

After all that's done, you have one last bunker to invade. Go in, kill everyone, and grab your documents to finish off the level.

Holding The Line

El Alamein: October 29, 1942

Now that you've gotten the Germans riled up, it's time to hold off their counterattack as they push towards a fortified town elsewhere in the desert. You've got plenty of tools to use against them, initially including emplaced machineguns and an 88mm flak cannon. For the most part, your teammates should be able to hold the line in the first couple of areas here, so feel free to hop into the 88 and use it to pound any incoming infantry before they can reach the town, or to destroy any halftracks that wander too close for their own good. There won't be any armor here - yet - so you should be able to destroy anything that comes your way with relative ease. You will have an endless supply of teammates, so that helps too!

Watch out for enemy troops that'll attempt to get up to your position and ambush you.

When you shift over to the northern part of town, you'll have to leave your flak cannon behind, but you'll get an MG42 to replace it, so use it to pound the ceaseless waves of Germans that are attacking you. After they go down, you'll be asked to help target the artillery strikes that are needed to take out those pesky tanks, so head to the top of the only open building in town and use your binoculars to sight the distant enemy tanks and destroy them. You can also fire your artillery into the path of the incoming waves of enemies, if you like, but your teammates on the ground should be able to hold most of them at bay, so concentrate on the tanks. Just be mindful of your surroundings; if you spot enemies rushing your building from the streets, you can bet they'll be climbing the stairs underneath you fairly soon.

After you've taken out nine or so tanks, the mission ends, hurrah.

Operation Supercharge

El Alamein: November 3rd, 1943

Supercharge is right! This mission is nothing but fighting, for the most part, as you have to attack the enemy lines and take out their antitank guns so that the armor to your rear can pass through and eventually crush the Germans beyond the minefield.

Doing so will mostly entail one of two things; crossing across open territory while using a tank for cover, or fighting in the trenches in between each open space to eliminate the crews of the anti-tank guns. When crossing behind a tank, make sure you stick close to the gold star on your compass. There are other tanks that you can hide behind, but many of them will be destroyed en route, so if you're behind one of them, you might lose your cover, or at least be forced to stop moving.

The trench fighting should be familiar to you by now. If you spot an overwhelming enemy force that turns and fires at you all at once, don't hesitate to lay down a little smoke. You might want to trade your Thompson for an MG42. Although it fires more slowly than the Thompson, it does have a bigger clip, allowing you to fire longer without having to reload.

Your final task here will be to assault a radio building that serves as the German rally point. Lay down smoke to cover your approach, if you wish, but it should be lightly defended. Kill anyone inside the building, then hit the radio to end the mission.

The End of the Beginning

El Daba: November 6, 1942

By now, many of you have probably already exhausted this level by playing the single-player demo that was released a while back, but for a refresher: you have to charge into one of Rommel's strongholds and expel the Germans, starting with the artillery that's holding your ships at bay.

To begin with, hop out of your truck here and lay down some smoke in front of the large group of Germans around the corner from the MG42. You don't have to worry about the MG's in the windows above you; when you walk underneath them, they should automatically die. Small favors...

Shoot these barrels, and they'll kill any nearby Germans.

From here, you have some alleyway fighting to finish off before you reach the docks, where the Germans will fiercely defend their positions. Watch for snipers on the buildings to the right, and keep an eye out for explosive fuel barrels near the artillery here, which you can destroy to kill some of the Germans. When you reach the end of the line of guns, one of your teammates will launch a smoke grenade, giving you cover to approach the building with the MG atop it. Enter (by yourself), and kill your way to the top, where you'll be able to call in a bombardment to destroy the German ships in the harbor.

After the ships have been destroyed, you'll have to find a back alley to move through in order to flank the MG positions up the street a bit. When you reach the position overlooking them, quickly take out the gunners with your submachinegun, then flip over to your rifle to start picking off the snipers that ring the square. If you get low on targets, jump down to the guns, and your teammates will follow you, which should hopefully expedite the process of killing off any remaining troops.

After you enter the nearby German HQ and steal the documents within (fling a few grenades up the stairs to weaken the defenders), you'll have to regroup at the docks. You can use the MG here to lighten up the Germans a bit; after they're gone it should be a quick walk back to the docks.

British Campaign Two: The Tank Squadrons

'Aaaahh!' indeed.

Crusader Charge

Libya: Jan 14, 1943

This is about as short a mission as you're likely to find in Call of Duty 2. All you need to do here is take your tank, follow behind the tank that's listed as a gold star on your compass, and reach the German tanks before you start to blow them to hell. Your tank is still on the regenerating-health system, apparently, so as long as you don't take a few rounds in quick succession, you should be almost unkillable. As the tooltip says, try to get behind or to the side of the enemy tanks and fire at them where their armor is weakest. Also, try to use your fellow tanks as shields when possible, keeping them between yourself and the enemy tanks to avoid taking fire.

88 Ridge

January 17, 1943

Another quick and dirty tank mission. Your goal here is to follow the ridge where you start, then head around the 88 guns on the opposite ridge, flank them, and destroy all of them so that your other tanks can advance. This isn't overly difficult to do, since the rest of your tanks will mostly stay alive during your little journey, but you will have Panzers to deal with on occasion, as well as anti-tank rocket fire from a couple of trenches that you pass. Still, so long as you proceed at a deliberate pace you should be a-Ok.

British Campaign Three: Rommel's Last Stand

Outnumbered and Outgunned

Toujane, Tunisia: March 10,1943

Although the loading screen for this level implies that all is well in Toujane, you're going to start the level in a fight for your life. All you can do initially is get to the MG42 and start mowing down the troops coming down the street towards you. Pay close attention to the soldiers that come crosswise across the street, because they'll wrap around the building here and take cover behind the car nearby. Still, it'll be tough to die here unless you just stop firing altogether.

Eventually, though, a shell-firing halftrack will come up the street. You can't destroy this with your MG, so just get down on the floor and wait for it to stop firing at you. When the door nearby opens, you'll have to bust through, kill the Germans, and start making your way to the halftrack with Price and MacGregor. Neither of these guys seem to be killable, so feel free to move forward slowly in the hopes that they'll proceed ahead of you. When you come to a tank, immediately duck into the alley to the right to find the armored car. After killing its inhabitants and any other nearby Germans, you'll get into the vehicle for a little rail-shooting section.

Armored Car Escape

Although you yourself won't take much damage here, the car you're in can't take more than one direct hit from a Panzerschrek, and these things are going to be all over the place; for the most part, though, they'll be called out to you by Price, so you should be able to know where they are if you listen to his prompts. Also note that you can switch between the turret gun here and your normal weapons by pressing your Use key, but you'll probably want to just stick to the turret due to the fact that you'll take normal damage while you're using your handheld weapons.

All you really have to worry about during the car ride is shooting panzerschreks and preventing your gun from overheating; just try not to fire it for too long at a stretch, and it should drop off in temperature pretty quickly. If you max out the heat gauge, though, you won't be able to fire it again until it completely cools off. Just pay attention to the gauge and make sure it doesn't hit the top!

The first difficult spot here comes when MacGregor drives into an alleyway and has to turn around. The panzerschreks behind you appear and fire in a specific order, so unless you shoot them in the right order, you'll probably die. After the plane drops its bomb nearby, first take out the soldier atop the building, then the leftmost soldier on the ground, then the soldier to the right. You can expect to die a few times here before all goes well.

Next up, more planes will come along for a strafing run; immediately after this section, you'll start winding up a street with more panzerschreks on the rooftops, but Price won't call them out to you, so keep your eyes peeled. Shortly after that, you'll leave the car and have to proceed on foot.

Foot Race

Don't worry too much about what Price says here; you can proceed as deliberately as you want through the little alleys near where you begin. It'll just be you, Price, and MacGregor for a while, though, so be sure to take down any Germans you see before running into fire.

The main sticking point here comes when you reach a destroyed tank sitting in the middle of a street. You'll get reinforcements if you can clear the tank, but there are a lot of Germans milling about, so chuck down some smoke around the tank, then proceed past it and hide somewhere while your friends come along and finish everyone off. From there it's a quick run to the last truck out of town.

Retaking Lost Ground

Toujane, Tunisia: March 11, 1943

It's time to march into Toujane and take out the Germans that have entrenched themselves in the city. You're going to be supported by tanks, at least in theory; as soon as the level begins, though, you'll find that the bulk of the armor you're dealing with will be blocked off from the German lines after the first one gets destroyed.

At this point, you'll have to work your way through the alleys nearby and attempt to flank the MG42 in the square here. Doing so won't be easy, as there are a lot of Germans in the area, but if you can make it through the alleys and into an open area near where the MG is firing, you can kill off the Germans, chuck a smoke grenade in front of the MG42, then shoot the barrels near it to temporarily kill the gunners. From there, proceed under cover until you reach the 88; it's not your job to destroy it, but one of the soldiers following behind you will be able to do so.

After that's done, you'll have to hit a forward observation post nearby. You have two approaches to the building, but again, your best bet is to lay down smoke and approach under cover. When you kill all of the Germans on the ground floor, a friendly soldier will appear and raise a ladder for you to move on.

The Crazy 88's

Well, it's time to move on to the 88's that the scouting party swore weren't here. There are four of them in total, but they're well spread out, so you'll have some tough fights just to get from gun to gun. At the first gun, you'll have to deal with an MG that's set up above the gun itself, so snipe it from a distance. Just beyond the first gun, you'll come across an enemy tank, but if you head down the street here far enough, you'll trigger the appearance of a Crusader that'll help you out.

Now, at this point, things get frustrating. Unfortunately your checkpoint here is before the appearance of the Crusader, so whenever you die in your attempt to reach the second 88, you're going to have to sit through its little fight with the Panzer over again. When it does manage to kill the Panzer, use it for cover as it approaches the next flak gun. It'll stop just before it comes into view of the enemy 88, but you probably don't want to try and approach the gun from where the tank is. It's better to take the long alleyway from the east, chuck a few grenades towards the gun, and wait for your teammates to move up and start killing their way through the Germans there. Help out if you like, but stay back until the enemy numbers thin out, because you'll still be respawning back before the tank battle if you die at this point.

If you can capture the second 88, then you should have an easier time of it with the last two, but you still might not get a checkpoint until after the third gun has been taken, so be careful. When you're retasked to attack the mosque, chuck all of your grenades up onto the second story, then wait for your troops to take the building; you shouldn't have to put yourself in harm's way here, unless you want to.

Assault on Matmata

Matmata, Tunisia: March 30, 1943

Well, if you've been thinking the game was easy so far, then get ready for a bit of a bigger challenge. As soon as you drive into Matmata, your convoy will be ambushed and systematically destroyed, Patriot Games-style. All you can really do here is...hide? Well, sometimes it's a noble act.

Anyway, find the barrels near the truck here and lay prone between them and the wall until you get the prompt to get through the nearby gate. Don't try to shoot anyone; don't stick your head up. This way, you might not be pelted with grenades and forced to run out into fire and die a horrible, Butch-and-Sundance death.

When you do finally get through the gate here, you'll be launched into an even harder fight against a dozen or so Germans overlooking your position. You'll have to take things slow here, as there are plenty of scripted German appearances at inopportune times, and if you're playing through on Hard or Veteran difficulty, even a few bullets are going to end your progress right quick. There are two paths you can take here, right and left. The right path has an MG looking down, while the left will have substantially more infantry choking your progress. With your Lee-Enfield, you should be able to take out the gunner of the MG, so we normally preferred to go down via the right path here. You'll have to work your way to it very carefully, though, perhaps using a smoke grenade or two if you're on Veteran difficulty, because we're not kidding; there are a huge number of enemies in the area.

When you clear the MG nest, you won't get much of a respite. If you keep fighting your way through the streets, in fact, you'll eventually hit a halftrack. There's no way for you to kill it; you just need to flank it to the left and attempt to get close enough to it so that it will start to backtrack away from you. When that happens, start following it, and eventually a British tank will appear behind you, allowing you to follow it through a few German squads as it makes its way through them.

When you reach the flak gun, stay underneath the eaves of the building here until most of the Germans are cleared out. When you're told to shoot down the incoming planes, hop into the flak gun and get going! If you played the first Call of Duty, then you should be used to the way that the planes move here; they'll fly in high, then suddenly drop down and head straight for your position. Luckily, they seem a bit easier to shoot now, so just unload on them as they approach and hit them as they angle down for their strafing run.

British Campaign Four: The Battle for Caen

Prisoners of War

Caumont, France: June 11th, 1944

It's best to take your time here in the first little orchard firefight; we found it easier to make our way up the left side of the field rather than going straight up the middle. Be sure to switch out your godawful Sten for an MP40 or MP44. You might also want to hunt down a Gewehr 43 to trade in for your Lee-Enfield, as well.

After you get through the orchard, you'll have to rush the next low wall across from the craters here; when you kill everyone nearby, you'll come under mortar fire, and will have to head into the building nearby. There's an unkillable MG42 that'll be firing on you, but if you wait a few moments, it'll get taken down and you'll be able to move on.

Well...that's a lot of Germans.

When you clear out the nearby building, you'll be told to head up to the second floor and fire on the mortar teams from there, and indeed you'll get a clean shot this way. Unfortunately the objective won't read as being accomplished until you return to the first floor and run out the door there, at which point you'll be able to move on to the second mortar team nearby. You'll need to head through a nearby house to reach them, but they'll be a bit easier to kill than the first.

After the second mortar team goes down, your goal becomes simply to clear out the rest of the town of Germans, so get started by heading back to the main square here and picking off any Germans that you see. After you clear out a few more streets, you'll reach a few injured Americans; you'll need to get a truck to help ship them out of the battlefield.

Unfortunately, it's going to just be you and MacGregor who get ordered to go after the truck. Even though MacGregor runs like a girl, he's still a pretty hardy guy all things considered, so let him lead the way back to the truck, which is all the way back near the beginning of the level. When you're prompted to hop in the back, do so and switch out your weapon for a rocket launcher. You're going to get ammo refills for this as you go along, so don't worry overmuch about running out of rounds.

Be ready to hit these barrels with your Panzerschrek as soon as you round the corner.

Your main challenges here are, first, a group of soldiers that conveniently gather around a few fuel barrels (just aim a rocket at the barrels to take out most of them), and then a Tiger tank that comes in to harry you. The Tiger will probably take three rocket shells to destroy, but you should be able to get that many off if you remember to crouch while the launcher is reloading. After the Tiger's done, it's smooth runnings to the POWs.

The Crossroads

Anctoville, France: June 12, 1944

You have to secure this town for the Allied cause, but it's going to be tough, as you'll discover when you start making your way down the street. Your path will be covered by MG42's, and you'll be ambushed by Germans in a nearby building when you pass their position. Concentrate on the enemies in the building first, then snipe out the MG42's with your Lee-Enfield or Gewehlt.

Shortly after moving some of the nearby buildings, you'll be faced with a Tiger tank. To destroy it, you'll have to flank around to its side, into the building nearby, and find a Panzerschrek on the second floor there. Be sure not to fire directly down onto it from the window, there, though, as you'll take a good amount of damage, which will make it easier for the Germans in the area to kill you. It's better to retreat a bit, return to the first floor, and fire through the MG window. It'll take a couple rounds to kill, of course, so be on the lookout for Germans entering the building.

The Halftrack

From there, you'll have to split off from Price momentarily while you clear out a building, but when you hear another MG42 firing on you, regroup with Price on the second floor of the building across from it and gingerly use your lean keys to snipe out all of the soldiers around the MG42. From there, charge up the street, taking cover from the approaching halftrack. There's nothing you can do against this armored vehicle; just wait for Price to call up a private with a panzerschrek, and let him finish the car off before moving up the road.

When the halftrack's done, you'll need to kill off a number of the Germans on the other side of the barbed wire barricade before your objective here will be completed. We preferred to just chuck all of our grenades at them and hope for the best; beyond that you'll just have to very carefully snipe them out from cover. When they do start retreating, you'll be ordered to return to one of the farmhouses you passed earlier and secure it.

It's important here to follow Price as he moves and immediately head through the gate after he kicks it open, as an MG42 will pop out and start firing at you a few seconds later. If you can get up to the side of the house before it deploys, though, you should be relatively clear of its fire, and free to head into the house and kill everyone within. The barn will be a different matter, as you'll have to scootch around to the door in one side of it and attempt to clear it out from there. When that's done, you'll have to defend yourself against five waves of Germans. They'll cap off their attack by coming at you with a Tiger, but so long as you make sure that you stay at the leftmost MG station, you should be safe from its attacks.

Wait for the halftrack to be destroyed before moving up the street here.

After a few tense minutes, the Tiger will be eliminated by a tankbuster airplane flying overhead, and you'll be free to regroup at the crossroads to round out the mission.

The Tiger

St. Louet, France: June 12, 1944

Stick close to Price as this mission starts, and you should be able to get around and flank the Tiger's position without getting hurt too badly. You can't hurt the Tiger yourself, at least not initially, so don't fret about it; just head down the row of buildings, clearing them out as you go.

Eventually, you'll reach a point where the Tiger will destroy your other Sherman tank. When that happens, you'll have more or less free reign over the town to complete your five objectives, which can be accomplished in any order. The Town Hall is closest to you, though, so it's best to start with it. Just rush the walls, take out everyone on the perimeter, then pick one of the entrances to go through. It's probably better to go through the entrance that looks in on the stairs, but either way will be rough due to the number of Germans inside.

From there, you'll have to head out and attempt to storm the post office. Unfortunately the wall is blocked by barbed wire, and is overlooked by an MG42 to boot; you'll have to cut through the backyards of the homes nearby to wrap around to it. You can eliminate most of the soldiers in the post office by firing on them from the building across the way, before you cross the road and finish off the stragglers within.

That is one big tank, and it's going to harrass you through the next two missions.

With the post office cleared out, wrap around to its eastern side and start moving up the road there on the outskirts of town towards the flak gun. If you follow the road up to where it turns the corner, you'll come to the flak gun, so take out all of its defenders to polish off another objective. From there, you'll have to hit the church, which is, of course, heavily defended. You might want to lay down some smoke in front of it to discourage the Germans from firing at you while you approach.

The chuch has four entrances, one on each side. Your best bet here is to run up to its northern side, shoot and chuck a few grenades through the door there, head around to the west, repeat the process on the window there, then finally wrap around to the south and come up through the door on the south side. This should let you clean out most of the Germans inside the church before you perform the difficult task of going pew to pew to clean out the remainders.

Last but not least, you have the German field HQ. This place is packed with Germans that'll start flowing out of it as soon as you approach it, but luckily it, like the church, has multiple entry points, which should allow you to pick and choose your point of attack. Just reaching its exterior will be a tall order, though, so you hopefully have a smoke grenade left to cover your approach. When you do reach one of the entrances, chuck a grenade or two inside and wait for any enemies to run out before heading in. It's actually best to make a circuit or two around the exterior of the house before entering it, just to give your teammates a chance to advance on the building before you head in. When you do enter, again, throw grenades up the stairs to flush out the Germans before charging up and clearing out the building once and for all.

The Brigade Box

Amaye sur Seulles: June 14, 1944

You're going to start this mission under fire from German mortars. In order to safely navigate through the falling explosives, stick close to Price and MacGregor; they seem to have a pretty good idea of how to move through the area without getting killed.

The next field will look rather intimidating, but your teammates should be able to solve most of your problems here. The kicker will be the enemy halftrack; if you can, do your best to snipe out the gunner in it before you head across the field. There's also an MG42 to worry about, but it might get taken out by one of your teammates before you can even fire on it. Beyond that, you should be able to rush forward without too many difficulties, so long as you don't get too far ahead of the other soldiers with you.

The first mortar position should be near where you wind up. Killing these guys should be relatively easy; just fire away at the fuel tanks near them to kill off a couple of them, then get in closer to finish off any stragglers. Just be careful of Germans in the ruined houses nearby who might have something to say about your encroachment on their territory.

You should be able to take out this gunner with a good shot from your L-E or Gewehlt.

Now, your goal here is to fight your way through the ruined buildings until you reach the somewhat less destroyed buildings up the road. Doing so can be difficult, though, especially if you find that your teammates lag behind you, and they sometimes will. If you need to retrieve any wayward squadmates - and getting to the houses here will pretty much require you to have them all following you - then just run back towards them on your map and they should start following you again.

When you do reach the first standing house, you'll need to kill its inhabitants to trigger another save point, which is decidedly a good thing, because the enemies in the nearby houses will continually spawn to replenish their numbers until you get inside them, which in turn pretty much requires you to rush into them by yourself and kill the inhabitants. When you clear them out, though, you should be near the second mortar position, which the Germans have also thoughtfully supplied with explosive barrels. A few grenades or even a few bullets should get you well on your way towards clearing out the position.

Stick to the eastern wall while approaching the farmhouse here.

Unfortunately for you, you're going to have a hard time getting to your last objective, the German HQ, which has been set up in a farmhouse near here. There's another huge field between you and it, but if you just sit tight and pick off the Germans as they come, you should eventually get something of a break in the numbers that come up along the right side of the field; when you do, pop out and flank around the right wall until you reach the small buildings near the farmhouse. You can use those as cover while you approach the farmhouse, then start picking off defenders while you decide on an entrance strategy.

Defending Against the Counterattack

After cleaning out the house, the real hard part is going to start. You have to survive for three and a half minutes until help arrives, but doing so will be difficult, as there's apparently a batallion of Wehrmacht that was just waiting for you to get into the building before charging in and making their counterattack. Defending these guys from inside the building is very, very difficult, but if you head up to the first floor, near the kitchen, and head past the front porch to the right of the building, you should find a small, self-contained courtyard on the west side of the house; it's a perfect place to defend yourself.

If you manage to find a fallen Bren gun, then that'll work, but if you have an MP40 or an MP44, that'll work too! Just lie down on the ground, looking forward at the stairs leading down to the courtyard, and kill off any Germans that come your way. If you stay inside the house, you'll be facing Germans that will be coming in from three directions, but if you crouch down in the courtyard, you'll only have to take them down when they come from the stairs, since that’s the only entrance. So things'll be a lot easier that way!

Unfortunately for you, you'll have one more little task assigned to you when the clock gets down to around 30 seconds or so. At that point, you'll have to deal with the Tiger tank that so bedevilled you in the last level; it's back and firing on your position. Things get a bit confusing here, as you have a pair of gold stars on your compass, one indicating the tank. You've apparently been carrying around explosives all this time, though, so all you need to do here is get to the tank and plant charges on it. Easy, right?

God, no. We'll be honest and say that this is going to be quite amazingly difficult to do on Veteran difficulty; even on Hard we were pretty lucky to make it to the tank at all, and we had to use two smoke grenades to do so. If you're out of smoke at this point, then you might have to resign yourself to charging up the same path through which you came to the farmhouse, fighting off incoming Germans all the while, until you manage to flank the Tiger and somehow get close enough to plant your charges. We managed to make the distance by chucking one smoke grenade in between the farmhouse and the tank, and using that to reach the wall near the tank, then throwing another one at the tank itself, then running directly towards it and reaching one of the explosive hotspots.

After the tank is blown, all you have to do is reach Price to finish the mission. Most of the Germans in the area will start to withdraw at this point, so just keep your head down until you have a clear path back to the farmhouse, and wind down the British campaign once and for all. Finally, no more of that annoying MacGregor and his annoying beard.

American Campaign One: D-Day

The Battle of Point du Hoc

Pointe Du Hoc: June 5, 1944

Pointe Du Hoc was the site of the first accomplished mission on D-Day, 1944, in which three companies of Rangers landed on the beach beneath the huge cliffs there, scaled the wall, tracked down large artillery guns that were trained on Omaha Beach, and rendered them almost useless to the Germans. How does all this play out in the game? Well, let's find out.

The beginning of this level begins with a lengthy scripted sequence, so just sit back and watch until you regain control of yourself at the bottom of the cliff. You're armed with a sniper rifle, but you only have five rounds for it; you'll need to use it to fire on any Germans that happen to be standing on the cliff before you find your rope and start your ascent. You can't be killed while you're on the rope, so just ascend and get to the first trench atop the wall.

Here, you'll come under heavy fire from a pillbox and other mobile MG42s in the area, but luckily for you, you won't have to deal with most of them just yet. When you're in the trench, you'll note that it branches into three paths. You'll want to follow down the one heading to your right, which should be somewhat to the west. You'll know you're heading the right way if it terminates in a crater that leads into a German bunker.

Let your teammates do the risky work whenever possible.

If you follow through the bunker a bit, you'll come to a pair of MG42s looking out and up the earthen ramp beyond. There's nothing to fire at here, though, as most of the Germans are in a trench to the southwest. What's more, there's a large gun off to the west a bit that'll tear you up if you head outside. You'll need to lay down smoke in front of it if you want to make it to the trench here, but when you do, you'll be able to follow it to the east to reach the pillbox you passed by earlier. Your teammates will destroy the gunner and start running towards the box, so follow them, but be careful, as there may be three or four more Germans coming at you from the closed door below the bunker.

Through The Town

After the far gun gets destroyed by artillery, stick with your men and start making your way to the west. You'll have to punch through it to reach the far side, which can be difficult, since there are a bunch of individual houses, and an MG overlooking the main square. You're going to be asked to lay down smoke here, but if you're a decent shot, you can snipe out the gunner with a Garand or Gewehlt a few times until the Germans stop manning it and proceed from there. Your teammates will sometimes get stuck if you don't lay down smoke, but if you proceed forward and kill all of the Germans in the building where the MG is, they should move up.

Get behind the halftrack and kill its gunner as quickly as possible.

After you hit the garden behind the town, flank the halftrack by scootching around to its left; if you're quick, you can get there before the Germans start to pour out its back side, and kill them before they scramble for cover. After that's done, you'll find the 155mm guns; disabling them is a simple matter of walking up to them and placing your thermite on the hydraulics that are responsible for moving them.

Your goal then becomes to fight your way back to the bunkers on the beach and clear out the remaining German resistance there. Getting through the town should be uneventful, but when you reach the craters again, you'll have to move out to the east and wrap around the worst of the fire to reach the gate leading into the bunker compound. Be careful not to get too close to the gate itself, as the charges that are set on it have a pretty big explosive radius and can kill you if you don't keep your distance.

When the gate's been destroyed, you'll have to find and kill the inhabitants of the three bunkers scattered around the area. There are still plenty of Germans in the trenches that line the fenced-in area, though, so you may want to start by hopping into one of those and clearing it out, just to ensure that you don't get shot in the back while you move. When all three bunkers are cleared, the mission ends.

Defending The Point

Pointe Du Hoc: June 6, 1944

Now that you've managed to take over Pointe du Hoc, the Germans are going to come back in and try to take it back. The beginning of this level is a fairly simple defend-the-checkpoint affair; your computer allies should be capable of defending the roadblocks you've set up, allowing you to sit back and snipe away at anyone who gets too close for comfort.

When you get the call to head back to the orchard, take up a position way up near the arch leading to the town; the Germans are going to come hard, and it's best not to have too far to move when you eventually have to retreat again. When the orchard is overrun, you'll be asked to head back into the farmhouse and man the MG in the upper window, so get up there and start letting loose. You'll take plenty of damage while firing, though, so be sure to duck and cover when you think you're about to die.

After you get another fallback order, you'll have to head back through the town, but Germans have pushed back behind you, so expect some fighting as you advance back towards the bunkers on the beach. When you do clear the town and reach the bunkers, it'll be time to make a few "last stands" in a row. You'll start out by firing your MG towards the arch that leads into town, but eventually a tank will start to harrass you, so you'll have to fall back to a midpoint bunker and fire with your rifles on the Germans as they advance. The tank continues to press in, though, so you'll be forced to retreat again, to the real last stand, just above the cliff's edge. You don't get reinforcements here, but some of your teammates do appear to be unkillable, so you should be able to survive if you just stay in the rear and pick off any Germans that appear to be a threat; there's no need to be a hero here, just stay alive.

At the farthest retreat point, you'll eventually have to lay down smoke to ensure that the American planes are aware of your situation; this is a simple matter of finding the smoke location in the bunker and pressing your use key. When that's done, you can just lie prone in the bunker until you hear the planes flying low overhead.

The Silo

Beaumont-Hague, France: July 14, 1944

Your first task here is to support a couple of fire teams as they assault and capture an enemy 88 in a field near where you start. You have a sniper rifle and plenty of ammo, so just lie prone near your .30cal gunner and snipe out any of the opposing MG42's as they pop up. Don't forget to duck back down below the hedge when you reload, or you'll get locked onto and taken out pretty quick.

When the 88 has been commandeered, move around to the village itself, where you'll be given another spate of objectives to achieve. You seem to be able to move through the village here as freely as you like, but you'll still probably want to tick off the objectives in the order that they arrive. Getting to A should just be a matter of throwing grenades into the building across the street, rushing across, then charging inside. Just be sure to wait for your teammates to catch up before you attempt to take a building by yourself!

Be sure to scout around a bit for weaknesses before picking a building to attack.

After A, you'll be closest to either B or F, but getting to either of them will be difficult. We preferred to backtrack a bit into the building that houses the MG42 that overlooked the field with the 88, then drop down into the courtyard here and head across to the silo/farmhouse. The farmhouse has a lot of cover for the German occupants, so we laid down smoke in front of the entrance, charged through to the far side, and waited for the squad to move up and start firing before moving back inside and clearing the building.

After that, it's just hardcore building clearing before you win. You're going to find plenty of ammo and plenty of grenades, so just feel free to be Stormin' Norman and throw frags into each building before charging in gung-ho. You'll need to use smoke to get into F, most likely, so get up close to the building and wait for your squad to move up before heading inside, as it's the most densely-populated of the bunch.

These mortar teams will kill you if you don't take them down quickly.

When all of the targets are under your control, you'll need to head up to the top of the nearby silo to watch for counterattacks. After all that fighting, you're going to have still more shooting to do, because the Germans are going to throw pretty much all of their mortar teams at your position. If a mortar team gets set up, they'll pelt you with shells, so you'll need to use the sniper rifle that you find at the top of the silo to zoom in on the guys carrying the mortars and kill them before they start firing. All of the mortar teams are marked with gold stars on your compass, so they shouldn't be too difficult to find. Sometimes they'll be obscured by buildings when they first appear, but they'll always come out into the open eventually. You don't have a large number of extra rounds for your weapon, though, so be sure to only fire at the mortar teams; if you fire on the other Germans, you might run out of bullets.

American Campaign Two: Hill 400

Now this dude knows how to clear a house out!

Approaching Hill 400

Bergstein, Germany: December 6, 1944

Well, it's time to take another nameless hill in your quest to enter Germany. This particular hill has a town at the base of it, populated entirely by soldiers, or so it would seem. More building-to-building fighting, coming right up!

You should know the drill by now, really; chuck grenades through the doors, get close to the house, wait for your teammates to follow, go in guns blazing. The first two houses here should fall to your onslaught, but the third will be more difficult. There'll be a smokescreen in front of it, so chuck a few grenades at the house through the smoke before attempting to cross the road and get up next to the home.

After the fourth house has been cleared, you'll have to head east through a field to resume your journey; lie prone behind the dead cows here if you need to avoid the fire of the Germans in the little trench beyond. From there, the rest of this level is just an exercise in following Randall and clearing houses. The last stop on your journey is the church, so lay down some smoke before heading in and be ready for a fight!

Rangers Lead The Way

Bergstein, Germany: December 7, 1944

Now that you've taken the town, it's time to take the hill as well. Doing so won't be easy, however, as there are multiple bunkers built into the hill that are going to be overlooking your charge with heavy machinegun fire. Time to say goodbye to some of your buddies. Or at least it would be, if any of them were anything more than anonymous faces to you.

Wait for smoke to arrive before heading in front of machineguns.

Anyway, the first bunker is going to be up the hill from where you start. When the rest of your squad lies low in a crater, chuck a smoke grenade in front of it, then wait for the signal to charge. You'll have to blow open the door to the rear of the bunker, chuck grenades in, etc., before you can count it as being cleared. From there, follow the road leading away from the bunker, killing Germans as you go, until you reach another bunker. Another soldier will lay down a smoke grenade here, and you'll definitely want to stay inside of it as you advance, because there'll be a large number of Germans near, but not inside, the bunker. If you can get your troops to follow you up the hill, they should be able to eliminate the Germans for you while you set your charges on the bunker door.

The third bunker will actually be facing away from you, so you shouldn't have any problems breaching it. The fourth, however, will be well protected by a hill full of Germans, as well as a halftrack that'll pass along the road you have to cross. Wait for the halftrack to move past you, then kill the gunner with your machinegun before laying down smoke on the far side of the road and moving across. The masses of Germans here will, of course, protest your actions, so find a divot or trench and just lie prone as long as you can until your teammates move up and start doing their thing.

Getting on top of this bunker will let you spot the mortar teams below.

After the fourth bunker is taken out, you'll need to find and kill the mortar teams elsewhere on the hill. Start by leaving the bunker and taking the stairs to the top, which will give you a clear line of fire to the first mortar team. From there, you should be able to hop off of the roof and quickly run over to the trench running along near the armored car here, which you also have to destroy. Setting charges there, then finding and killing the second mortar team, will let you finish off the mission.

Battle For Hill 400

Bergstein, Germany: December 8, 1944

Ok, you've taken the hill, now you just need to keep it. It's going to be you and the remainder of your squad against a batallion of Germans, and you don't have the manpower to set up the defenses that they did. You do have a sniper rifle, which is pretty rad. Now if it was only a rapid-fire sniping rifle with homing bullets, you might have a shot here.

Anyway, you're going to start off with a quest to take down mortar teams that are coming your way. You should know the drill here from your time atop the silo back in the town from the last campaign, except now you have a lot more area to cover and it'll be tougher to spot the mortars in the trees. You'll have to run along the trench on the perimeter of the hill, killing any Germans within the perimeter, while running towards the gold stars on the compass and attempting to find the mortar teams. The teams will leave smoke clouds when they fire, and their shells will also have some smoke trails that should help you pin down the teams' exact locations.

Incoming!

After the mortars are down, hit one of the trenches on the perimeter of the base to take cover from the artillery that's going to start coming down. When the artillery barrage is done, you'll have to get ready for a German attack; they'll quickly breach the line in multiple places and flood into your little base. You're going to want some kind of submachinegun here, preferably an MP40 or 44, as well as the Panzerschrek that's lying around, which will be handy to use on the halftracks that are going to start coming your way. Note that you have a large excess of smoke grenades here, so if you find yourself getting overwhelmed, you can lay smoke down and cut down the Germans as they come to your position through the smoke. Use the .30cal machineguns that you've set up around the perimeter while the smoke billows to have an easier time of it with the killing.

Eventually, as mentioned, you'll be facing off against a few halftracks that'll come in, gunners blazing. If you're crazy like that, you can run up to them and plant charges on them to blow them away, but it's a lot easier to just lock onto them with your panzerschrek and take them out from a distance. While they're coming, there will of course be a huge number of German troops charging in on all sides. You have a few MGs set up, but using them will prevent you from looking around, so you'll have to watch your damage indicators and try to leave the MG as soon as you see that you're getting hit from the rear. We're making this sound a lot, lot easier than it is; you'll have to play through this section a couple of times before you learn where the waves come from and when you can expect to get hit. Luckily there are quicksaves every minute or so, so you'll never lose too much time when you die.

After a while, a five minute reinforcement counter will start to tick down; this is your cue to start running around like a headless chicken. The strategy here is basically to learn where the enemies are coming from after a checkpoint and react accordingly when your game reloads; it's difficult to say anything specifically about what to expect, if only because there are so many damn enemies, and multiple Tigers coming at you. The Germans also get pretty freakin' prescient with their grenades, so you can't really hang out inside the bunker and hope to just ride it out; you can expect grenades to constantly be landing on your position, no matter where you are, so you'll have to just keep moving and firing at the Germans when they appear.

Surviving the Tigers

You'll likely spend the bulk of the last four minutes of the counter on the south side of the bunker, since the Tigers will be approaching from the north. Try and stay close to your team, and constantly be laying down smoke grenades to hide yourself in, if possible. As the clock clicks down, you should have autosaves every 40 seconds or so, which is a good thing, because you're going to be absolutely swamped by Germans. If you can survive for the last few minutes of the counter, though, the tanks will be knocked out by planes, and you'll be able to sweep out the remainder of the troops atop the hill to win the match. Yay.

American Campaign Three: Crossing The Rhine

The Crossing Point

March 24, 1945: Vollendor, Germany

Well, the German war machine is on the brink of defeat, but the Fatherland's defenders are still clinging to their posts and hanging on against all odds. In this mission, you're going to have to cross the Rhine and eliminate the crews that are manning the German artillery on the far side of the river.

The Guns

You'll begin the mission inside one of the landing vehicles, manning a .30 cal machinegun, so just keep firing on the enemies on the far side; if possible, kill the MG42 gunner in the window of the building across the way before leaving the ship. Note that, unlike most of the other instances in which your commander calls for smoke, no one will actually throw any except you, so chuck some smoke underneath the MG42 positions near the 88 gun here, then hop over the fallen trees to charge up to their position. Taking out the first gun will thus be relatively easy, and the second one will also be relatively simple; just head into the building near it and fire from there onto the gunnery crew.

Unload grenades on these guys before moving down the hill here.

The next three are going to be decidedly more difficult to approach, however, especially the third, which is blocked by a street that's packed with Germans. If you have patience, you might be able to soften up their position and creep along without using a smoke grenade, but if you just want to get in close, lay down some cover and move up the street to the building near the barricade. You can head through the building if you wish, or round the barricade, but whichever way you go, through a few grenades at the third 88 nearby to kill off some of the crew before heading out into the open. To actually reach the 88, you'll need to head up the street adjacent to it and come back around from above, but you'll be under from two sides as you do this, so again, smoke might be necessary. You can kill off the Germans in the ruined house, as well as the MG42 gunner across the way, if you shoot them repeatedly; they should eventually stop spawning.

The third artillery gun will have another wave of defenders spawn in just as you round the corner towards it, so chuck down a few grenades at them to weaken them before picking the remainder of them off. To move on from there, head into the ruined house near the gun and start making your way down the street. Smoke will be something of a help here, but if necessary, you can just dash from side to side until you get to the end of the road. You'll come under heavy fire, of course, but you should be able to survive if you manage to weaken up the enemies before running.

After you make it through the graveyard to take down the fourth 88, take control of it and fire at the Germans down the street. You don't have any cover to take advantage of as you move down, but if you knock them around with the 88 you should be able to save yourself a smoke grenade. You won't be able to move all the way up the street, though; you'll have to wrap around the church and through the buildings here to reach the fifth gun.

Killing the Tigers

The fifth gun is at the rear of an open square, but there's no need to lay down smoke; just plop a grenade or two in the enemy area and rush over there. Unfortunately, you won't reach the gun before two Tiger tanks pop in through the walls and start tearing stuff up. You'll get a checkpoint as soon as the first one appears, which is good, because you're going to die here a few times. In order to win the round, you have to get to the Tigers and destroy them, either with the flak guns that you've captured, or by placing dynamite on their treads. We personally preferred to destroy them with dynamite, which requires a bit of boldness, but can be done with a bit of tact.

The first Tiger will appear near the fifth flak gun, then start rolling down the street. If you're quick, you can slap explosives on it as it turns after destroying the gun; otherwise, you can just lie in wait for it further down the street and wait for it to pass by before running up and tagging it. Just be sure you kill off any Germans between you and it before attempting to run up next to it, of course. When it's gone, the second Tiger will remain; it'll likely have busted through a wall and made its way deeper into town, but this will also have dispersed the Germans somewhat, so bring your squad along behind you and kill any soldiers around the tank before approaching it. Don't forget that their machineguns will fire automatically at you if you're in front of them, so stay to their sides or to their rear before approaching.

After the Tigers are done, you're more or less home free; all you need to do is a little mopup before hitting the regroup point and winding down the game. Congratulations; you've saved Europe once again!

Weapons

There are plenty of different weapons in Call of Duty 2, but you can only carry two at any given time. For the single-player game, you'll normally want to have something capable of firing single powerful shots with good accuracy, such as a rifle of some sort, and pair that up with a short-range, rapid-fire weapon, such as a submachinegun. The same is basically true in multiplayer, but you'll have to be careful about what weapon you choose when you join a game, because you'll normally begin with only your weapon of choice; your other weapon slot will be filled by a mostly-useless pistol. You can switch out your pistol for a weapon that's dropped by a fallen soldier, but you'll only retain the new weapon until you die yourself; at that point you'll revert back to your pistol. So, your primary weapon choice should be flexible enough to work in a variety of situations, but of course you should choose something that you're comfortable with. Some people prefer bolt-action rifles, some prefer sniper rifles, some like SMGs, some like heavy weapons like the BAR.

In multiplayer, each weapon will come with its own assortment of smoke and frag grenades (assuming the server allows you to use these). In general, less powerful weapons will net you more grenades, whereas weapons capable of killing foes with minimal effort will come with fewer grenades.

Russian

SVt40 Accuracy: 7/10 Damage: 7/10 Mobility: 6/10

The SVt40 is a semi-automatic rifle, capable of holding 10 rounds in a clip. Since it doesn't have the bolt-action limitations of a Mosin-Nagant or a Kar98k, it can fire more quickly than most rifles, but doesn't possess quite as much punch as those weapons do. Still, if you're looking to fire on a number of enemies at a good range, then you can definitely do worse than the SVt40, since it possess both accuracy and speed.

PPsh Accuracy: 4/10 Damage: 8/10 Mobility: 8/10

We'll admit it: we were pretty wrong about the PPSh's utility when we wrote the guide for the first Call of Duty. Although it is wildly inaccurate at long range, the extremely rapid firing of the PPSh will make it exceedingly deadly in multiplayer matches, enough so that enemies will be killed with just a second or two of sustained fire, assuming you can actually hit them, of course. The recoil effect is pretty wicked, and the spread of bullets will make it difficult to hit anything that's not fairly close to you, but still, this thing puts a lot of bullets in the air.

PPs42 Accuracy: 4/10 Damage: 6/10 Mobility: 7/10

The new PPs42 Soviet submachinegun is a decent enough weapon, but relatively inaccurate and possessing more recoil than weapons like the MP40, usually making it a poor choice for multiplayer. If you have the choice between this and the PPSh, the PPSh will generally be the better choice, except perhaps on maps with large open spaces.

Mosin-Nagant Accuracy: 10/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 6/10

Sniper rifles are always handy for dealing with distant enemies, but they're never completely necessary.

The Soviet Mosin-Nagant rifle was simple to use and cheap to make, and thus perfect for the huge and poorly-trained Soviet army. It possesses a five-round clip with a quick reloading animation.

Scoped Mosin-Nagant Accuracy: 10/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 6/10

Unlike the scoped Mosin-Nagant in Call of Duty, the COD2 version of this sniper rifle doesn't feature a clip design for the ammo, meaning that you'll have to reload it one round at a time. Still, this bolt action rifle should take out almost anyone you hit in one shot, making it a perfect weapon for sniping on the wintery Soviet maps.

German

You'll be using German weapons for most of the single-player experience in Call of Duty 2; although you never play as a German soldier, your default weapons will usually run low on ammo within a half-mission or so, leaving you to scavenge weapons from amongst the trail of dead you've left behind you. This isn't a bad thing at all, however, since the German weapons are very dependable arms.

MP40 Accuracy: 5/10 Damage: 6/10 Mobility: 7/10

The MP40 is the Wermacht's standard submachine gun, capable of emptying an entire 32-round clip at a target within seconds. SMGs are not renowned for their accuracy, and indeed the MP40 shouldn't be a primary weapon for multiplayer maps that will require firing across distances. At mid-range, though, the MP40 is probably the best submachine gun in the game, due to the fact that there is virtually no recoil whatsoever; if you aim down the sights at a target, you won't need to fight against a kicking reflex, as you will with almost every other weapon capable of automatic fire. This alone will help you land more bullets on quick-moving targets. In the single-player game this is going to be your best friend when paired up with a rifle in your other weapon slot, since you'll be finding enough ammo to keep yourself topped out through most levels.

The MP40 will be your constant friend throughout the singleplayer portion of COD2.

MP44 Accuracy: 6/10 Damage: 8/10 Mobility: 5/10

The MP44 was one of the earliest mass-produced assault rifles, and its utility in battle inspired such weapons as the AK-47. Its most notable feature is the lack of a tradeoff between precision and rapidity of fire: while it admittedly fires a bit more slowly than the MP40, it is by far that weapon's superior when it comes to mid-range or even long-range targeting. It's no sniper rifle, but is fairly accurate when single shots are fired at distant enemies. Unfortunately, there's little ammo to be found for this weapon in most of the single-player levels, but its strengths are usually worth the effort of preserving your ammunition.

In multi-player, choosing between the MP40 and the MP44 can drive good men mad, but most players will be better off with the MP40. While the MP44 is capable of better accuracy at extreme range, the MP40's recoil-less firing will make a huge difference when attempting to aim down the sights at a moving target. This choice depends on your style of play, though, obviously.

Kar98k Accuracy: 10/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 7/10

The Kar98k is your basic bolt-action rifle: excellent accuracy when aiming down the scope, horrid rate of fire. It's further hamstrung by the small five-round clip. In most single-player missions, you will either possess a sniper rifle, or one of the superior Allied rifles. There are also a few scoped Kar98ks scattered around the levels if you look close enough; these are essentially identical to Kar98ks, but outfitted for long-range firing. In most cases, the Gewehr is going to be a better weapon in the single-player levels, but the Kar98k is a decent choice in multiplayer thanks to its ability to kill most targets in one hit.

There is also a scoped version of the Kar98k available on occasion. As with most sniper rifles, it'll kill almost anything in one hit, but will still suffer from the bolt-action slowdown and slow reloading.

Gewehr 43 Accuracy: 8/10 Damage: 8/10 Mobility: 7/10

Like the Garand or SVT40, the Gewehr is a semi-automatic rifle capable of unloading shells quite quickly with good accuracy at long range. It has the largest ammo capacity of any weapon in this class, with a 15-round clip and decent stopping power. For single-player games, you should find the Gewehr to be a welcome addition to your arsenal, since ammo is generally going to be plentiful for it and you'll be able to take down distant targets with ease. In multiplayer, you'll probably either find a bolt-action rifle or an automatic weapon to be a bit more useful. Although the Gewehr can kill enemies that are caught in the open, it doesn't fire quite rapidly enough to prevent them from taking cover if cover's available.

Panzerschrek Accuracy: 6/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 2/10

The Panzerschrek appears to be the only anti-tank weapon in Call of Duty 2, replacing the bazooka and panzerfaust from the first game. The Panzerschrek can hold multiple rounds, and is mostly designed to destroy enemy armored vehicles, but can also be used to take down enemy infantry, as well, especially when they group together closely. This weapon only appears in the single-player portion of the game.

British

The British military has their own unique weapons, of course, but will often also use American weapons for the purposes of multiplayer, so don't expect to be limited to the weapons listed below. Lee-Enfield Accuracy: 10/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 7/10

If you're looking for a bolt-action rifle, the Lee-Enfield is the weapon of choice. You should be familiar with the properties of such a weapon by now, but the L-E distinguishes itself from the rest of the bolt-action weapons in the game with its large 10-round capacity. It takes marginally longer to reload than some of the other bolt-action rifles, due to the fact that you'll need to reinsert two clips when reloading, but you'll need to reload half as often as with other rifles, which more than balances things out.

Sten Accuracy: 6/10 Damage: 6/10 Mobility: 9/10

The Sten Gun was mass-produced during WWII, which saw over two million of the submachine guns into the hands of Allied forces. Unfortunately, you're going to be one of the soldiers unlucky enough to wield one, for however brief a period of time.

The Bren is big and powerful, but takes a while to be put into aiming mode.

The Sten possesses the typical boons of a submachine gun in its high rate of fire and large magazine, but it is one of the least accurate weapons in the game, and is almost completely unsuitable for shooting at a target at any but the closest ranges. In single-player, you should exchange this weapon for an MP40 as soon as possible; in multiplayer, if you're unlucky enough to be playing as the British, you'll want to grab a Bren, or one of the rifles, and hope to find a decent submachine gun to fill your other slot.

Bren LMG Accuracy: 5/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 5/10

The Bren is Call of Duty's other big machine gun, accompanying the BAR as the heavy-duty weaponry for multiplayer games. Like that weapon, it's at its best when fired from a prone position, so you'll want to find a spot with a decent amount of cover and a wide field of view. If you need to move to another location, you'll want to find a decent submachine gun before exposing yourself to enemy fire, as the Bren is one of the least-accurate weapons when fired from a standing position.

M1A1 Carbine Accuracy: 8/10 Damage: 5/10 Mobility: 10/10

In the game, M1A1s come outfitted with a 15 clip magazine, and feature semi-automatic fire, with decent accuracy when aiming down the sights. On the other hand, it lacks the stopping power of a Garand, and has a mediocre zoom distance when aiming. You do move like the dickens while carrying an M1, but there are many better weapons to choose from.

Grease Gun Accuracy: 5/10 Damage: 5/10 Mobility: 7/10

The grease gun is something of an American equivalent to the British Sten SMG, in that it's not particularly good at anything. In particular, its recoil is going to lift your aim about 15 degrees while firing the first 12 rounds or so of a clip, so you'll be required to manually move your mouse forward to compensate for this while you aim.

The M1 Garand is a classic weapon for a reason.

M1 Garand Accuracy: 7/10 Damage: 8/10 Mobility: 8/10

One of the most distinctive weapons of World War II, the semiautomatic M1 Garand possesses an eight-round clip that automatically discharges from the rifle when it's empty. This weapon is drastically superior to the bolt-action rifles in the game, due to its increased rate of fire and short reload time. And it's just plain cool. Accuracy is superb when aiming down the sight, or from the hip, for that matter. In multiplayer firefights, this is something you'll want to jump on if you've selected a submachine gun or assault rifle as your primary weapon: it'll extend your range, while not rendering you completely ineffective when ambushed.

Thompson Accuracy: 5/10 Damage: 7/10 Mobility: 9/10

This submachine gun is a dependable weapon, and is well able to drop an enemy with a split-second's worth of concentrated fire. Its accuracy seems to have been improved since the first Call of Duty, but it still possesses a smallish clip (20 rounds), that gets chewed through with just a couple of seconds of constant fire. You'll often be trading this for an MP40 in the single-player game, but even in multiplayer you might want to consider vulturing a German weapon from a corpse on the more spacious maps.

Browning Automatic Rifle Accuracy: 7/10 Damage: 9/10 Mobility: 5/10

The BAR is a heavy-duty piece of machinery, weighing close to 17 pounds when outfitted with a full magazine, and as such, will slow you down considerably during multiplayer. Its smallish 20-round magazine is its other primary bane, but in counterpoint, it does possess quite impressive accuracy when lying prone, and it deals more damage per second than almost any other weapon.

M1897 Trench Gun Accuracy: 2/10 Damage: 9/10 Mobility: 7/10

This shotgun is only available in multiplayer, as far as we can tell, and is available to all sides of the fight, not just the Americans. While it does a good amount of damage, it, like most shotguns in FPS's, will only be useful at extremely close range, so be sure to get right up next to your foe before firing. It also takes a while to reload, so you'll need to ensure that you're in the clear before you run out of shells, or your opponent will have an easy time taking you out.

Springfield Accuracy: 10/10 Damage: 10/10 Mobility: 7/10

As far as sniper rifles go, the Springfield is an impressive breed, with a history stretching back to the turn of 19th century. In gameplay terms, this rifle is a tad more powerful than the other nation's choice of distance weaponry, but its reload time is hampered by the fact that each round has to be inserted into the rifle individually, meaning that if you fire all five rounds, it will take you a few seconds to reload completely. To minimize this drawback, you may wish to either reload as soon as your field of vision is cleared of live targets, or simply find very good cover before reloading.

Multiplayer Tips

General Tips

Don't be afraid to use your melee attack. While not quite as useful as in single-player, you can still put the hurt down on someone if you both get caught reloading at the same time.

As you play online, make an effort to distinguish the sounds of the different weaponry in the game. Any Axis player can hear an M1 Garand and lock on to the location of an Allied foe, but it takes effort to learn the difference between the sounds of the various submachine guns. If you can begin recognizing each weapon by the sound that it makes, you'll be able to tilt the signal-to-noise ratio in chaotic multiplayer games in your favor. This is also true of the various voice calls in the game; if you hear someone cry out in German, then you'll know that they're on the German team, and can react accordingly.

The smaller a game is, the more important it becomes to move silently. When there are thirty players tromping around, the sound of an individual pair of footsteps is unlikely to be distinct amidst the noise, but as you drift down towards games with a dozen players or less, the player who can remain silent as often as possible will have a huge advantage. To remain silent, either move while crouched, or move while aiming down your iron sights.

Aiming down the sights is incredibly important, if you want to hit anything beyond point-blank range.

Aim down the sights! While it may be difficult to adjust to the notion that all weapons, instead of just sniper rifles, possess a zoom feature, aiming down the sights increases the accuracy of every weapon you wield by a huge amount. For automatic weapons, in particular, the difference between aiming and firing from the hip is usually the difference between surviving a gunfight and waiting for the next round to begin.

If you wish to gain familiarity with a certain map, or learn where the retrieval or search and destroy objectives are, it's a simple matter to load a gametype and map as a private server. Playing by yourself will help you get a feel for routes, sniping spots, and good ambush spots.

As soon as the gunfire begins, you should begin looking for a weapon to supplement your primary choice. If you have a submachine gun, you'll want a rifle, and vice-versa. You have to manually pick up a weapon with your use key, but this is a relatively simple procedure, even when running at full speed, and the versatility you gain will greatly increase your chances of survival.

Although moving from place to place in a straight line is the quickest mode of travel, it also makes it much easier for opponents to get a clean shot. When crossing open territory, strafe side to side as you make your way over the terrain; being unpredictable is often the difference between taking a headshot and hearing a bullet impact the ground behind you.

Keep in mind that Call of Duty 2 punishes you for jumping in multiplayer by restricting you from jumping again immediately, and slowing your movement speed greatly for a few seconds after you land. You can still jump over an obstacle, if you wish, but jumping to avoid enemy fire is often counterproductive, as you'll just hit the ground and be stuck in place, allowing them to take a much easier shot than they normally would've.

Game Types

There are five different modes of online play, each of which has a common moniker and an abbreviation that's used in Call of Duty's built-in server browser.

Deathmatch (DM)

Deathmatch is the simplest of all of Call of Duty's multiplayer modes, but is no less fun for it. The rules are simple: shoot anything that moves, and avoid being shot yourself. This is generally the least popular mode, so you may have trouble finding a good variety of servers for this gametype.

Tips

If it moves, kill it. If it makes a sound, kill it more. Deathmatch is the only multiplayer mode in which you don't have to worry about friendly fire, so anyone and everyone is fair game. The sounds, especially, will be a good indicator of where prey is, especially when you yourself are silent. In interiors or otherwise cramped spaces, though, most experienced players will begin creeping around, and thus become silent, so stay on your toes at all times.

Since you take so few bullets before dying, you should consider abusing your grenade allotment before the bell tolls for thee. You may only have one or two grenades, but if you die before using them, you've essentially wasted them, since you'll be restored to a full load when you respawn. It's always worth the time to chuck a grenade towards the sound of gunfire and hope you get lucky, especially on the smaller maps

Team Deathmatch (TDM)

Team Deathmatch is pretty much what it sounds like: a killfest that is contested between two teams instead of a number of individuals. Call of Duty's mobile spawn points make TDM particularly fun; if you die, you'll be respawned in the location with the highest concentration of your teammates, thus giving you a few seconds to orient yourself before heading back into battle. As a round progresses, each team will see its base of operations shift multiple times, thus lending this gametype a fluidity that some of the others often lack.

Tips

Unless you know whether or not the server you're playing on has friendly fire turned on, it's probably a good idea not to go around firing wildly or chucking grenades into the air. If FF is on, you'll likely take out a few teammates; at worst, if friendly fire is set to Reflect, you could find yourself dying, since all the damage that you deal to teammates will instead be taken by you.

Keep an eye out for the skull symbol; it'll let you know where your teammates were killed.

Given that you'll be spawning in different places all over the map, it can be difficult to locate the main body of enemy troops amid the cacophony of individual firefights. Check your compass; it will indicate to you the locations of all of your teammates. It may sound like a platitude, but if you're looking for the enemy, go where your teammates are not. If there's a suspicious gap in your teammates' placement, it's a good bet that that's where the highest concentration of enemies is located.

Whether you like it or not, TDM is all about teamwork, which means that you'll be better off when you stick close together. Even on random servers where you aren't familiar with the other players, you can still organize informal groupings by requesting partners with your team-specific chat, or simply by choosing someone who looks like they know what they're doing and following them. In groups, you'll have a much easier time taking down targets, and you'll be able to alert your entire group as to the position of enemies with gunfire.

Retrieval (RE)

Retrieval is a twist on the classic Capture the Flag gametype, except that, instead of two teams attempting to capture a flag and return it to base, Retrieval has one team solely dedicated to offense and one team solely dedicated to defending an objective. Players on the offensive team have to track down the items they're meant to retrieve (they're marked on the compass with a gold star), pick them up, and return them to a marked area behind their spawn lines.

There are either one or two objectives, depending on the map; if there are two, then the offensive team is required to retrieve both of them. The defensive team is, of course, responsible for the care and safekeeping of said objectives, although this isn't quite as easy as it sounds, since the documents are often in locations rather distant from the defender's spawn points, and are also in locations that can be difficult to defend. Either team can win a round by killing all of the members of the other team.

To make things a bit more interesting, the defending team is penalized if they let an opponent grab an objective and move it towards the retrieval goal. If said opponent is killed in transit towards his home base, the objectives will fall to the ground, and will remain there for 60 seconds, or until another member of the offensive team comes along to retrieve it. Defending players cannot pick up or return dropped objectives to their original spot, so after an objective is brought a significant portion of the distance back to the defending team's base of operations, the match is usually as good as decided in favor of the defending team, who will spawn closer to the objective than the defending team and will thus be very likely to pick it up again and complete the retrieval.

Tips

The team that works together wins--it's as simple as that. On random Internet servers, it can be next to impossible to communicate effectively with your teammates, especially when attempting to capture an objective, which tends to tip the scales in favor of the defending party. Make use of your quick-chat keys if you're on the offense to attempt to rally together a raiding party.

The best spot for defending an objective is rarely the closest one to its location or the one with a clear line of sight to the item itself. If you choose to hang back a bit, try to find a spot with a clear shot at the entrance to the item's location, and remain as still as possible until an enemy approaches it. You can expect the offensive team to throw many grenades at the objective's location as they approach, so you'll want to be able to grab a bit of cover if necessary.

One alternative to defending the objectives is to defend the retrieval zone. If you find yourself as one of a few remaining defending players as the clock ticks down, you may want to attempt to shift your position from one overlooking an objective to one overlooking the blue zone that offensive players need to reach to successfully capture an item. As a match moves on, most offensive players will head out to find objectives, which will usually leave their retrieval zone unguarded. If you can make it there, and find a spot with good line-of-sight on the surrounding territory, you'll likely be able to kill off any retrievers as they sprint towards home. Any remaining offensive players will usually break off from the objective in an attempt to hunt you down, thus making it more difficult for them to return the objective before time runs out.

Whichever side you're playing on, keep a careful eye on the clock. As it ticks down, offensive players will generally become more flustered, and will tend to make mental mistakes, such as entering a room without covering the corners. If the timer reaches the point of no return, where it becomes physically impossible for an offensive player to retrieve the objective before time runs out, your priority as a defender should be to disappear and remain completely silent--you don't want to let your opponents snatch your victory by default if they manage to eliminate all of you.

Headquarters

Headquarters is a new gametype in Call of Duty 2, one that puts a new twist on classic deathmatch gameplay. In it, both teams attempt to retrieve radios and place them in a special part of the map, where it'll spawn and become a Headquarters. Enemy players can destroy a Headquarters by getting close to the radio and waiting for a timer to count down.

Be sure to defend your HQ when it's up, as that's where all of the enemy players will be heading.

While a Headquarters is operational, the players on that team will constantly gain points, but won't be able to respawn if they die. The players on the other team will be able to respawn as normal, of course, meaning that eventually they'll overwhelm the team with the Headquarters and destroy it, earning a ten point bonus and starting the whole cycle over again.

Tips

Headquarters is basically team deathmatch with some twists thrown in for good measure. If you're experienced in team deathmatch, then you should be able to perform up to your usual standards here, but the headquarters themselves do become focal points on the map. The assaulting team will have to get close to the radio, while the defending team will, by nature, stick back and attempt to ensure that no one on the other team approaches it. Thus, the radio area becomes the nexus of most of the combat on a map, resulting in a cluster of players around it. Tread softly, crouch to conceal your movement, and listen for footsteps when you get near the radio!